What Have Planes And Dental Practices Got In Common?

Posted onAugust 2, 2013byadmin

When you are sitting on your holiday flight with your family prior to take off, do you start to worry about whether the airline has serviced the engines properly, or that the under carriage will pop down effortlessly when you get to the other end? The chances are you don’t, and there is a reason for this: everything looks right, it looks clean, there are no broken seats, dirty uniforms or awful carpet stains. But, just think if you popped down the tray on the seat back and it was filthy with spilt Coke and some congealed meal from the last flight, would the mice of doubt start nibbling away at the back of your mind about the safety and quality of the airline you had chosen? Would you begin to feel uncomfortable…….and the more uncomfortable you became, the more you noticed stuff that was not quite perfect with the interior of your airplane?

Practices and planes are just the same, try this simple test.

Ask a complete stranger (or your Mum) to visit your practice one Tuesday morning, unannounced, and ask her to compile a list, using all her senses, all of the things that make her feel unhappy, uncomfortable or simply ill at ease in your practice.

Here is my (rather long) list from a practice visit a few weeks ago…

The Public Areas:-

Weeds, litter, cigarette ends, chewing gum etc around the approach to the Practice

Staff cars taking up all the car parking spaces

Signage that doesn’t tell me what the practice offers

A closed front door

Fluorescent lighting

Carpets

Chipped and dirty paint work

No air conditioning

Wood chip paper on the walls

Dirty/worn upholstery

Notices Blu Tacked onto the walls

Notices Cellotaped onto the walls

Lots of leaflets from third party companies advertising their products

Tangled, dirty, vertical blinds

Seating around the edges of the patient lounge

A dirty fish tank (come on!)

Notices telling me off (missed appointments etc)

The radio playing behind the reception desk

Posters of Boden Families with perfect teeth with some daft copy such as “Smile with confidence”

Only one loo with very basic facilities and a notice telling me to wash my hands

A tatty kids toy box

A tatty water cooler which had run out of paper cups

Reception/Receptionists:-

The receptionists won’t catch my eye when I stand in front of the reception desk

The receptionists are a bit grumpy

The receptionist hasn’t told me her name

The receptionists are sitting behind a high desk in front of which the patients stand

There are queues at the desk

The reception desk is cluttered

The phone is going unanswered

Many of the staff wandering through reception are clutching their mobile phones

A few of the support team have visible tattoos and piercings

A few of the staff (including one of the dentists) look unkempt, wearing a stained, creased uniform and dirty shoes etc

Surgeries full of stuff and clutter and kit with leads and plugs dangling

So try scoring yourself against my list, how many of these can you own up to? Hopefully hardly any!!!

This is not about money, nothing on my list costs more than some training or a few hundred pounds to fix. What this is really about is getting the preconditioning right. Just like sitting in a plane on the tarmac, waiting to take off, the passengers in the plane and the patients in your waiting room need to feel confident that they have chosen well, (there’s no shortage of airlines or dental practices) if they are to become your long term customers and if they are to say yes to the extensive treatment plan that you want to offer them.

If you would like some help with getting your environment right and growing your practice, please do get in touch.
Mobile:- 07770 430576
Email:- simon.hocken@breathebusiness.co.uk

'Simon Says' Newsletter sign-up

Full name

Email

Mobile number

Job title

You can also sign up to:Breathe Recruitment Post

I confirm I would like to subscribe to the 'Simon Says' newsletter and have read the privacy policy

nowbreathe does not share your personal information with anyone else. You can opt-out of this service at any time via the unsubscribe link on our communications. Find out more by reading our privacy policy.

X

Recruitment newsletter sign-up

Name

Email

Mobile number

Job title

You can also sign up to:'Simon Says' Newsletter

I confirm I would like to subscribe to the 'Recruitment' newsletter and have read the privacy policy

nowbreathe does not share your personal information with anyone else. You can opt-out of this service at any time via the unsubscribe link on our communications. Find out more by reading our privacy policy.